More than 90% of high school students had a digital device in May 2022, technology/what-the-massive-shift-to-1-to-1-computing-means-for-schools-in-charts/2022/05″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow” data-url=”https://www.edweek.org/technology/what-the-massive-shift-to-1-to-1-computing-means-for-schools-in-charts/2022/05″>according to EdWeek. At the same time, the pandemic focused many non-school educational institutions on how to make their collections, or at least parts of those collections, available remotely or virtually.
While there is still a need to close the digital divide among low-income families, there is progress toward ensuring that all students access digital materials outside of school. Educators must be aware of the potential resources available to enrich their classrooms.
Just in time for the start of the 2023-24 school year, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has made more than 48 million images, videos, and text available to students as open source materials. The DPLA offers online exhibits as well as curated sets of primary sources that come with teaching guides, including materials on slavery and civil rights.
The DPLA was established in 2013 to be a unified, highly curated platform for aggregating the wide range of resources that have become digitized. The DPLA has also been involved in promoting the Open Educational Resources movement.
Some examples of the Digital Public Library of America Resources include:
John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry
This collection covers the planning of Brown’s raid, as well as the raid itself and the aftermath that many believe led directly to the Civil War.
This provides an application to access and read titles commonly banned in some public libraries.
This collection provides information on the Cold War space race as well as current international cooperative efforts in space.
Public library digital collections
Many world-class traditional libraries have begun to develop their own digital collections. Here are a few to explore:
The Bodleian Libraries, located in Oxford, England, as part of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest and most renowned libraries in the world, with a history dating back to the 17th century.
Vatican Apostolic Library (Vatican Library)
The Vatican Library has digitized more than one million images from its collections that could offer wonderful images for teachers, including images of the Gutenberg Bible. t
British Library Flickr Collection
The British Library has published more than one million images on Flickr. This collection includes 325 images of castles, 199 photographs of cats, and 281 tagged images Women of the world.
Library of Alexandria
This is the Egyptian government’s attempt to recapture the spirits of knowledge and learning from the Library of Alexandria in the ancient world.
The LOC offers a wide range of visual resources, including a huge collection of Civil War images and Works Progress Administration posters.
Other public digital resources
Beyond curated collections from libraries and museums for students to use, there are many pre-curated collections of open resources that teachers can use to plan lessons and create their own curated collections.
National Geographic Kids
National Geographic provides information about animals, countries, space, since and history.
This senior resource project provides information on comparative freedoms around the world.
A one-stop shop to find free course lists, videos, and other materials for your courses.
Provides a set of curated collections, including specific collections focused on K-12 English, math, and homeschooling resources. It also features a wide range of fiction resources, as well as some collections for each month and major holidays.
OER Commons shares a variety of curated collections, from Shakespeare-related materials to STEAM content.
PBS Video Resources
PBS has a curated set of video resources for educators and students. new materials They are also available through the PBS website.
NASA MSFC
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center offers classroom resources, including materials specific to supporting minority participation in STEM subjects.
Virtual tours and excursions
Beyond simply bringing materials into the classroom, there are a variety of virtual tours that will allow educators to offer virtual field trips for students to more effectively interact with natural, cultural, and historical sites.
In addition to tech & Learning’s curated list of best virtual excursionsHere are some others to consider:
Louvre in Paris is a world-famous museum with a collection that includes the iconic Mona Lisa. Located in a historic French royal palace, it is one of the largest and most visited museums in the world.
The collector.com contains a list with links to 18 virtual museum visits.
Updated points provides a link to the 75 “best virtual museum tours.”
Google Art and Culture offers dozens of museum connections and also has a link to the museum of the day.
THREW UPthe virtual art museum, which has no physical space.
Tours of historic sites and places of natural beauty are also available virtually.
Lazy Historian provides a list of 20 virtual tours of historical sites on five continents.
Virtual tours of the History Channel
Some of these tours include Mount Vernon and the Chinese Terracotta Army.
National Park Foundation Virtual Tours
Links to a variety of US National Park properties, including Crater Lake National Park and Alexander Hamilton’s Manhattan home, as well as live webcams from several NPS properties.
Build your own!
Once educators are aware of the many resources available, some will want to develop their own curated lists for their students. One of the easiest methods to do this is to use linking tools within learning management systems.
Some of the easiest-to-use healing tools include:
Collections tool in Edge The browser is a simple option.
Keep Google It is another method of healing materials.
The most advanced curation tools for teachers include say, Pocketand TES Teaching with Blendspace.
